Pens, Paper, and Post-its

I'm currently sitting my final exams, and my walls are covered top to bottom in brightly coloured posters, and revision cards, with scrawled handwriting so tiny in an attempt to fit all the information on, without needing to use another card (they don't come cheap you know).

But is this 'method' of revision actually an efficient and effective way of studying? Or am I just so desperate to do ANYTHING, but study that I'm inventing new ways to distract myself, and calling it 'preparation'?

I'm not exactly struggling in school, but I feel like I am one of those students that just always manages to slightly underachieve, and then kicks themselves wishing they'd done that extra half hour of note reading, or that extra page of practise questions, rather than copying notes onto a poster for hours on end, hoping my brain would somehow magically absorb the information.

But recently I've been focusing on personalising my revision. Doing practise paper, after practise paper, and spending hours answering questions on topics that I feel confident on just feels like such a waste of time.

And so, one day, I decided to sit down, take a moment, and actually list every single topic in my subject, Biology for example. I listed every topic and the main headings within each topic. I then drew three boxes next to each heading with an 'R,' 'A,' or 'G' for red, amber, or green depending on my confidence level within each heading, for example 'The human heart and circulation' has a tick in the amber box by it, whereas 'respiration' has a tick in the red box.

I go through the headings with red box ticks first, and list them in order of priority, one being the one I struggle with most, and so on. Now this is where websites such as 'Quizlet' and 'getrevising' come in handy. 'Quizlet' contains hundreds of online flashcards already made for you, which you can learn, print, and get tested on online! They have topic-specific cards, and questions that you can personalise, and tests on the information you have learnt. I have found this website extremely helpful, and it has improved my information retention by a mile!

Once you have covered, and feel confident on, each topic, make a couple of pages of memory retention-based questions; questions that require you to recall specific information. This will prove helpful to you, as mark schemes are generally very specific in their marking criteria. Wait a week, and then try to answer the questions, any you cannot answer, go over the content again, wait a couple of days then answer again.

If you wish, I also recommend writing harder and longer questions after you complete your first set to keep challenging yourself, and to further improve fact retention and memory, and to also keep you in the flow of answering longer answer questions.

'Getrevising' is a site full of different types of resources such as posters, spider diagrams, cards, and quizzes for any subject. For example, I have used their Streetcar Named Desire context and character cards for bitesize revision before my English exam.

Context and characterisation are so important in English essays, and for exams, reading the key points surrounding the novel or play you are studying a couple of times a week will go a long way. And the same goes for language and structure analysis. Having pre-prepared sentences, and introductions for your set texts, that you can manipulate to fit the question is an effective use of your time, rather than sitting for hours writing practise essays.

Well, that's generally all the revision tips I have, other than the usual 'copy your notes,' and 'do practise papers' that I have heard to death as a student.

Oh, and by the way, if you're reading this, looking for some motivation to actually do some work then here it is: GET UP, AND WORK FOR THE GRADES YOU DESERVE, BECAUSE DREAMS DO NOT WORK UNLESS YOU DO.

Han x